Posted by James Melanson on March 29, 2006 at 19:57:55:
In Reply to: Stanislav Lem posted by Webmaven Maggie on March 29, 2006 at 16:27:09:
Hey Maggie! I've never read him, and I'm wondering this as well. Someone here must be familiar with his work. Anxious to hear about it.
James
: Just caught this in the news:
: Solaris author Stanislav Lem dies aged 84
: Tuesday March 28, 2006
: The Polish science fiction writer Stanislav Lem, shortlisted for the inaugural Man Booker international award last year, died yesterday in Krakow, Poland, aged 84.
: His secretary, Wojciech Zemek, told the Associated Press that the cause was heart failure, citing his advanced age.
: A giant of 20th-century science fiction, Lem was best-known for his novel Solaris, first published in 1961, which was adapted for film first by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972 and later by Steven Soderbergh in 2002. In it he examines questions of time, identity and memory as he tells the story of an encounter with a mysterious alien intelligence, and of the strange dreams which afflict the astronauts.
: His Master's Voice, published in 1968, deals with the possibility of communication with an alien civilisation, telling the story of a secret project to decode an alien message which ends in failure.
: Lem was born in 1921 in the then Polish town of Lviv. He trained first as a doctor and fought with the resistance against the German occupation during the second world war.
: He was always critical of most science fiction, describing it as ill thought-out, poorly written and more interested in adventure than ideas or new literary forms. This attitude provoked the removal of his honorary membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1976. He subsequently declined the offer of a full, voting membership.
: Lem is survived by a wife and son.
: Despite all the science fiction I've read, I managed to miss Lem altogether - should I correct this?
: Maggie
: webmaven@gregrucka.com